By: Mark Glennon*
Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it, it’s often said. But what can we say about undoing a history lesson already learned?
How about “depressing”? That’s the word used in an email we received from former Illinois State Senator David Barkhausen to describe a bill now waiting for Governor J.B. Pritzker’s signature that would expand the scope of collective bargaining and power to strike for the Chicago Teachers Union.
Barkhausen served in the Illinois Senate from 1983 to 1997 and in the House prior to that. He was instrumental in passing legislation in 1995 that finally limited the CTU’s persistent, abusive strikes. According to the Chicago Tribune, Chicago teachers had gone on strike in 1969 1971, 1973, 1975, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1987, and threatened to strike eight other times.
But that power was finally limited, thanks largely to Barkhausen’s efforts, when the state passed legislation in 1995 limiting the scope of CTU’s bargaining power to wages and benefits.
I spoke by phone to Barkhausen, who regards the 1995 restrictions as among his most important accomplishments. “A quarter century later, the union lackeys who control Illinois government now want to repeal it – to the detriment of Chicago’s neediest school children,” he said, and asked “Is it any wonder Illinois faces such a grim future when its leaders pound one nail into the state’s coffin after another?”
The CTU has long been on a thinly-veiled quest to take over the school system – curriculum, budgets, everything. That’s what this was long been about.
More recently, however, it added broader social goals to its demands including defunding the police and rent abatement, as well as conditions for going back to work as COVID-19 recedes.
The new bill that would empower the CTU to strike over its broader agenda is HB2275. It passed both houses in the Illinois General Assembly and its fate will be decided by Pritzker.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot openly opposed the bill and sent this letter to lawmakers. Unfortunately, however, her letter says the bill would be acceptable to her if implementation were delayed five years to allow for expiration of the current contract. Leave it for the next officeholders to worry about, in other words.
Just last year, the school district caved to union demands and signed an absurd, five-year contract that will cost it least $1.5 billion over those five years — and that’s before the cost of pensions is considered, which we still haven’t seen quantified. The contract resulted from an overly generous offer the city put on the table on its own initiative.
If Pritzker signs the new bill, count on the junk-rated school district to face even higher costs, more of the CTU’s militantly leftist curriculum in classrooms and more school days missed thanks to more strikes.
So far, the Pritzker Administration has consistently given public unions whatever they want. We will see if he finally comes to his senses and vetoes the new bill.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
The arguments for tearing apart Chicago Public Schools and replacing it with a universal school choice program continue to pile higher. The system is an abject failure any way you cut it. 
Chicago may think it walled itself off from the issue, but the firestorm is only getting started. 
Neither Pritzker or Lightfoot can escape the reality that they’ve lost control over the city’s crime. One statistic that particularly captures their failure is Chicago’s homicide rate compared to that in big-city peers New York and Los Angeles. 
President Biden said the pandemic is essentially over, but Governor Pritzker issued his 34th Covid Disaster Proclamation. President of Wirepoints and the Steve Cochran Show talk about why Pritzker issued the proclamation, what the Federal Government is going to do about this, and if the Governor’s Office has too much power. 
I’m still praying for “School Choice”!!!
Along with the collective bargaining limitations that began in 1995, CPS also received a huge state funding increase in the form of block grants. You could argue CTU members benefited financially from that exchange. These block grants probably did more to promote labor peace than the rules change. It’s only when pension funding became a problem (CPS pumped all that block grant cash into operations and not the pension system) did CPS and CTU start complaining.
…”The problem with Socialism is that you will eventually run out of other people’s money.”…
Well, there is a silver lining of a cloud if the Teachers strike more often:
The kids would probably become more intelligent if they did not show up at CPS Schools.
Maybe someone can answer a question for me. Putting aside political will, why couldn’t a mayor plan for a teacher’s strike and use replacement workers? I know that teaching isn’t that simple or easy, but if you plan for replacements, by working with a consulting firm and having at least some quick training, you could theoretically just get warm bodies into classrooms with a set curriculum in front of them. It’s not hard to read from a script, and certainly not at the lower grade levels. Increase the pay, but eliminate the benefits, like sick days and pension costs. The… Read more »
…or just eliminate public education and turn it over to the parents and the private sector.
Let’s do a thought exercise. Imagine that every parent had a free ticket to send their child to any school, private or public, within a 10 mile radius, with no limitations on enrollment at any of the schools.
What percentage of students would attend the public schools?
Unlike most professions, teachers don’t lose money during a work stoppage. Since the school year is mandated by law, days lost during a strike are typically made up later in the school year, so their pay is deferred, rather than lost. It’s hard for a school district or taxpayers to have any leverage during a strike.
But if those days are consumed with competent substitutes, they won’t be made up. That changes the equation.
Thanks for the history lesson! I was on the picket line for the first 9 of those strikes. They were all about more $$$. In 69 there were 2 kids from what were then called “broken” homes and colleagues worried about teaching MacBeth and Hamlet. By 87, no one in the classes came from a 2 parent home and the head of the language department couldn’t speak Spanish but taught the translated writings of Che Guevara. We made more $$$ but lost the Middle Class. It is over for CPS!
Eugene – This article covers a bit of CPS history from the 1980’s. Crazy times indeed:
https://citizenvsmachine.wordpress.com/2016/04/14/cps-pension-pick-up-was-this-trip-really-necessary/
I read the article posted, thank you. Those were crazy times. I made my decision to quit after sitting with a business teacher (my field was Math) discussing the unsustainably of it all. At age 40, I just quit. I took my pension at 55 when my child entered college. It began at $850/month but it has grown to $1600/month to date. While I benefit from it, I do realize it’s obscene.
Thanks for being straight up about it.
I appreciate your honesty and your disgust. Since you clearly have lived the obscenity of CTU I expect that you can explain this: What is it about CTU members not being able to draw from social security? Is that true? Every teacher that I’ve known worked summer jobs. Their SS contribution at these jobs goes into the ether or are they exempt form the SS contribution? What about jobs prior to CPS pension? Are those SS contributions gone? Why? What is the legal reasoning behind this? Is this true of all public sector pensioners? Is it just in Illinois or… Read more »
I don’t know about employees of the entire state, but I do know that social security retirement was not deducted from any of my checks. Medicare was deducted but only covered part A. There is a “quarters earned” requirement for part B Medicare that affects the monthly premium you pay for part B when you apply. City employees work summer jobs and work after retirement to qualify for part B at a lower cost. As to the legal reasoning, who knows? I was told early on that the pension would be going strong long after Social Security had collapsed!
And I spewed coffee from my mouth and nose in laughter when I read, “there were 2 kids from what were then called “broken” homes and colleagues worried about teaching MacBeth and Hamlet.” What a time of innocence and intellegence. I suspect that most CPS teachers now have never read any Shakespeare beyond perhaps Romeo and Juliet.
The World has common law, civil law, Sharia and whatever systems prevail in Asia. Due to European colonialism, much of the law in Asia started with common or civil law. Each has its built-in flaws and all suffer from the the cleverness and corruptibility of humans generally as well as the venality of lawyers in a world that has too many. There was a time in American history when private sector power dominated and when unions were “justified” as an imperfect way to level the playing field. Presidents Coolidge and F. Roosevelt had the foresight to stand against public employee… Read more »
Terrible cities filled with miserable people (of all races, colors and creeds) elect corrupt politicians to turn their cities into awful places to live. Hence, Chicago and most other major cities.
Only at certain times in history in certain places on this planet have people been able to effectively self-govern. And even awful self-governance is still better than a despot. So they say.
The “democratic” trajectory of Western Europe and Israel is to become increasingly Muslim. Preservation of the Judeo-Christian past (and democratic values) will become increasingly difficult. What we have until tomorrow has been a holding action. Open borders will make us a polyglot Toulouse in a few decades. I say this not as an Ann Coulter proponent but as a would-be historian. As a temporary bulwark against being assimilated by refugees, we could try to have them assimilate to “us.” How has that worked in Amsterdam? How has it worked even in Detroit and Chicago? Masses go where they go and… Read more »
So if teachers and the union are running the show, they can no longer put blame on anybody else for poor academic outcomes?
Yes they can. These cowards are incapable of accepting any responsibility
“Pritzker” and “sense” do not belong in the same sentence. There is no chance that he will veto this bill. Teacher’s unions run this state.